


Never Doubting

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [110]
Category: Farscape, Murder in Suburbia (TV), Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Ash Loves Crichton, Boss Dimitri, Co-workers, Crichton Loves Ash, Drunk Crichton, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Flirting, Even When Drunk, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Going Home, Happy Ending, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Jealous Ash, Kissing, Mentioned Dimitri Belikov/Caroline Forbes, Office Party, Skeevy Women, Space Jokes, Spiked Punch, Workplace Relationship, compliments, harmless flirting, sober ash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 19:19:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11789733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: While the women she works with may draw her ire by flirting with a rather drunk Crichton, she knows she can trust him. That doesn't mean she has to watch, though.





	Never Doubting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So **sideofrawr** finally saw ASh's post at the game and replied and I was all "Have to write them, am compelled" and so I used the quote prompt " _'You, my dear, are the most beautiful person I have ever encountered, and I have only discovered a fraction of your soul. Let's discover universes together.'_ " (by B.A. from _fragment of my thoughts, #54: a new discovery_ ).

She had to admit, it wasn’t often _she_ was the sober one and _Crichton_ was the drunk one, but whatever bloody liquor had been put into the punch for the employees by _someone_ who she was fairly sure was not Clara had been potent enough to stun...well, John Crichton. Or perhaps not stun, but dear Lord, she was highly amused at his antics.

The complimenting other women? Not so much.

She knew he meant it to be kind. He wasn’t _flirting_ with them, of that she was absolutely sure. But the women were _taking_ it as flirting and it was getting on her last bloody nerve. As if it wasn’t talked about that she had found every hidden corner that Dimitri hadn’t put a camera and she didn’t go to them _alone_! It was supposedly common knowledge that they bloody _lived_ together.

And yet most of the women were looking at him and acting as if they’d get to live out a bloody fantasy.

That fantasy probably being a weekend fling under hers and their spouse's nose.

She knew John would _never_ agree to a dalliance like that but…

She got up, smoothing down her dress and turning on heel, nearly crashing into Dimitri, who was making his way to Caroline. She actually quite liked Caroline. Just as she thought Rose was paired well with Jim the way Dimitri acted when he talked about Caroline showed he liked her quite a bit, and it was obviously mutual. “Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out to steady her.

“I need some air,” she said, suddenly feeling as though she was going to burst into tears. Oh, bloody hell. 

She didn’t need to know where Dimitri was looking when he squeezed her arm sympathetically. “You know, perhaps it might be best to take John home before certain women get ideas and I have to stop you from stabbing them with shrimp forks.”

She barked out a laugh and leaned into him briefly, the Kate Ashurst version of a hug. “Go fetch him for me?”

“I will,” he said, letting go of her arm. She watched him go and caught a glimpse of a woman putting her hand on Crichton’s arm in an inviting away and him, very carefully, shaking his head and lifting her hand off his arm. A small smile landed on her face as she saw Dimitri reach him, motion towards her, and a blindingly bright, wide smile crossed his face. 

No, he never would have agreed to anything with anyone else.

He made his way over to her, leaning into Dimitri a bit, and then got to her. “Do you think Phryne came back and doctored the punch?” he asked.

She shook her head and looped an arm around his waist. “If she didn’t, her spirit possessed someone to liven up the party,” she said, giving a nod to Dimitri. “I have him. Tomorrow, for training?”

Dimitri shook his head. “I think you might have your hands full. Perhaps Sunday.”

Kate nodded and helped lead Crichton out to where there were cabs waiting. Oh, Clara or Danny or _someone_ in charge was a bloody genius. If they were collecting keys, even better. “Alright, spaceman. To the cab. Vomit on me and I dump you on the couch when we get home.”

He shook his head. “You should have had a better night.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised you attract the attention of women,” she said.

“I don’t care about any of them, though,” he said. “I may be drunker than drunk, but there’s only one person I had any intention of going home with. You. To our home.”

“I know,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I don’t get insecure or jealous.” She was rather surprised she was being open and honest with him about this. So many relationships she had attempted had been sabotaged because she had closed herself off, and here she was, leading the first man she might readily admit she was in love with to a cab and telling him something simply and honestly without the intention of a fight.

Apparently, multiverse travel had changed her in more ways than one. Or maybe it was this rather lovable lunk of a man. She wasn’t sure.

He stopped just outside the entrance to the ballroom and looked at her. He seemed completely serious, even completely sober, though she doubted he was. Not that quickly, not off that much. But he reached over and cupped her face gently, running his thumbs along her cheekbones and murmured, "You, my dear, are the most beautiful person I have ever encountered, and I have only discovered a fraction of your soul. Let's discover universes together."

She felt her smile widen, knowing that this was probably a quote or something he had heard somewhere and just _waited_ to use, but really, if that was the truth than this had been the perfect moment. “Well, you do have a shuttle...” she said. “But you aren’t sober enough to fly it. You’re _drunk_.”

“Yes, I'm drunk. And you're beautiful. And tomorrow morning I'll be sober...but you'll still be beautiful.”

“Well,” she said, reaching up to play with the collar of his suit jacket, “then tomorrow you can tell me again.”

He grinned back and then leaned in to kiss her, in full view of every person who happened to look their way, but she didn’t care. Let them stare. Let them get their fill of what they _wish_ they had, she thought to herself as she clutched at his suit jacket. She had no reason to doubt that this man was going to stay with her, and she was going to stay with him, for at least a _little_ while longer, and that thought made her deliriously happy.


End file.
